India vows to track down Israel attack suspects

Indian investigators were searching on Tuesday for the motorcycle assailant who attached a bomb to an Israeli diplomatic car in the heart of New Delhi in an attack the Jewish state blamed on Iran or its proxies.

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Investigators take a closer look at the vehicle that exploded near the Israeli embassy in New DelhiPhoto: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images

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The burning wreckage of the Israeli embassy car after the explosion in New Delhi Photo: AFP/Getty Images

8:51AM GMT 14 Feb 2012

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack, as well as a foiled bombing in Georgia, which appeared to mirror the recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran blamed on Israel.

The blast in New Delhi set a car ablaze and wounded four people, including an Israeli Embassy driver and a diplomat's wife, who was in critical, but stable, condition.

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the strike appeared to be a terror attack carried out by a "very well-trained person".

Israel has blamed Iran and the Lebanese group Hizbollah for the attack and the failed strike in Georgia, which have ratcheted already heightened tensions between Tehran and the Jewish state.

Iran is a strong Indian ally and a steady oil supplier to the energy-starved country.

The attack took place just after 3pm on Monday, when Tal Yehoshua-Koren, the wife of a defence ministry official based in New Delhi, was heading to the American Embassy School to pick up her children, police said.

A single person on a motorcycle rode up behind her minivan as it was stopped at a red light and attached a bomb to the rear door, Chidambaram said. The motorcycle then sped off and the bomb blew up four or five seconds later.

The driver of the van and two people in a nearby car suffered minor injuries. Yehoshua-Koren underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from near her spine and was in critical, but stable condition on Tuesday morning, according to Dr. P.K. Sachdeva, a neurosurgeon treating her at Primus Hospital.

"She is responding to verbal commands. Her husband has met her. There is partial paralysis of the legs, but we are hoping that with time she will improve," he said.